The present invention relates to coke ovens and, more particularly, to apparatus and method for transferring hot coke pushed from a coke over chamber into a receptacle to a dry coke cooler apparatus.
For many years it has been convenient to cool hot coke pushed from a coke oven chamber in a large receptacle into which cooling gases flow.
The process is denoted as dry coke cooling and it contrasts sharply with conventional wet coke quenching and cooling with water on a coke wharf or at a quenching station.
The prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,230 which discloses a coke plant and method for operating the same wherein coke is cooled by dry-quenching with a gas. Hot coke is pushed from a coke over chamber into a receptacle, and the receptacle is conveyed to a hoisting device. The receptacle containing the hot coke is tipped, when it reaches the top of the hoist, and the hot coke gravitates into a dry coke cooler or bunker means. Thereafter the empty receptacle is lowered and it is returned to a hot coke car that moves to the next oven chamber from which hot coke is to be pushed.
The apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,230 is very similar to a conventional "skip hoist" for charging materials into a blast furnace.
The applicant points out that the apparatus of the cited U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,230 does not show or suggest one or more of the features claimed in this application, which features are more particularly described hereinafter.